The Lufkin Daily News has a reminder out that the Texas State Genealogical Society will be holding its annual meeting in Waco, from November 4 through November 6. That’s Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

It’s being called “Bridging Generations” and it will also mark the 50th Anniversary of the Texas State Genealogical Society. It’s being hosted by the Central Texas Genealogical Society and in addition to celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the TSGS, it’s kind of a celebration of the new West Waco Library and Genealogy Center. The genealogy collection will have twice as much space as it currently has in the main library, among other resources.

The article mentions it as an opportunity for genealogists from outside of Waco to visit the new (and hopefully open) West Waco Library and Genealogy Center, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, and the Texas Collection at Baylor University, along with other area attractions. The Texas Collection at Baylor University features quite a few things of interest to genealogists in the state, including collections involving Central Texas history, African American and Hispanic history and culture in Texas, and Texans in the military.

Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle ran a very welcome story about documenting some of our most irreplaceable documents in the state of Texas. Soon, county clerks from all 254 counties in Texas will be receiving a survey asking them to document the records they have in their possession, along with the condition of the documents and any preservation plans they have for the documents.

This is due in part to an order last November by the Texas Supreme Court to create the Court Records Preservation Task Force, which is a volunteer group dedicated to documenting and preserving court documents. Some of these may not have even been seen before now, at least by the public:

Old court documents contain valuable information, much of it never seen by historians, said Kroger. Topics include slavery, the Texas Republic, immigration, genealogy and many others. Many such records, some dating from 1836, have been stolen, lost, destroyed or left to decay. The task force plans to identify where the most valuable records are located and develop procedures for preserving them.

Part of those plans include digitizing/scanning every document and making them accessible to the public, and looking into the possibility of creating a permanent group dedicated to guiding the preservation and documentation efforts.

While it covers court-related documents, from what I’ve been reading and people I’ve been talking to, the plan is to hopefully extend it further to other county documents (and city) of interest to the public and the state.